[p2p-research] US firm to build world’s largest solar plant in China | csmonitor.com

[Paul D. Fernhout]

"First Solar will build a two-gigawatt solar farm to supply power to three 
million Chinese."
http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/09/09/us-firm-to-build-worlds-largest-solar-plant-in-china/
"Beijing - China never does things by halves. Already a Chinese solar panel 
manufacturer is building the largest solar energy farm in the world, in 
Portugal. But that is about to be dwarfed by a new project, announced today 
in Washington. First Solar, a US solar panel firm, is to build a 
two-gigawatt solar farm - more than 20 times bigger than the Portuguese 
installation - in China. ... The First Solar farm is due to come onstream in 
five years, putting out one thousand megawatts - one gigawatt - of energy, 
which is about 10 times more than the country’s entire installed solar 
capacity at the moment. By 2019 the plant, in Inner Mongolia, will be 
generating two gigawatts. ... First Solar makes advanced thin film panels - 
not widely manufactured in China - and the firm is discussing the 
construction of a factory in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. If that goes ahead, you 
can be sure it won’t be long before Chinese engineers have learned the 
technology, improved upon it, and started making their own thin film panels 
to compete with First Solar. "


Related:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32737729/ns/business-oil_and_energy/
"""
Ahearn said it would be nearly impossible to install a solar field of this 
size in the United States. There's plenty of land, but there's not enough 
near transmission lines, Ahearn said. And efforts to build new power lines 
are regularly stymied by competing interests from government agencies, 
environmental groups and disgruntled residents. "In the U.S., energy policy 
is made on the state level," Ahearn said. "Every state has a different 
approach." In contrast, Ahearn said China has designated a region within the 
country for renewable energy production and transmission. It also has 
promised to guide First Solar through the approval process and make it 
profitable. ... In addition, First Solar will benefit by gaining access to 
China's cheap labor and what may become the biggest solar market in the 
world. By building in China, First Solar will be able to push the cost of 
its solar panels even lower. ...
"""

So, there is that aspect of the value of hierarchies. Still, it's not clear 
that renewables need such big projects, as opposed to homes or towns having 
their own smaller facilities.

Also on this:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/09/worlds-largest-solar-plant-in-china-will-power-3-million-homes/

For reference, there are some US big projects too, but solar thermal, not PV:
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/bechtel-to-build-solar-energy-plant-in-california/
"Bechtel, the global engineering and construction giant, has jumped into the 
solar power plant business in a deal with a developer to build a 
440-megawatt energy complex in California. The agreement, being announced 
Wednesday, calls for Bechtel’s development and finance arm, Bechtel 
Enterprises, to take an equity stake in the solar project known as the 
Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System. The collection of three solar 
power stations will deliver electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric and 
Southern California Edison."

"World’s Largest Solar Power Plant Coming to Arizona in 2011"
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/02/25/world%E2%80%99s-largest-solar-power-plant-coming-to-arizona-in-2011/
"The Arizona solar power plant has been named Solana, which means “a sunny 
place” in Spanish, and will be located 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near 
Gila Bend, and cover 1,900 acres. The capacity of the power plant has been 
projected at 280 megawatts — a capacity which could power 70,000 homes and 
create 1,500 jobs. The electricity generated by the plant will be sold to 
APS to the tune of around $4 billion for over next 30 years. Solana will 
make use of Abengoa Solar‘s Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology, 
which is based on solar radiation concentration to generate steam or hot 
air, which is used by an electric plant to run steam turbines."

And wind is big in the USA:
http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/AWEA_second_quarter_market_report_072809.html
"Washington D.C.--The U.S. wind energy industry installed 1,210 megawatts 
(MW) of new power generating capacity in the second quarter, bringing the 
total added this year to just over 4,000 MW – an amount larger than the 
2,900 MW added in the first six months of 2008, the American Wind Energy 
Association (AWEA) said today in its second quarter (Q2) market report."

So, within three months this year, about half the power that big solar plant 
in China is going to produce by 2019 was added to the US grid in wind 
energy. So, it's still a big thing, but a lot of stuff is happening. And 
wind is significantly farther along the exponential growth curve than solar.

Wind is also happening in China:
   http://www.greenchipstocks.com/articles/china-wind-energy/470
"Now, though, I feel more optimistic about Gansu's future. . . the province 
will soon be home to China's first 10 gigawatt wind farm."

Note that wind and solar tend to complement each other -- when it is cloudy 
or night time, there is no solar energy but the winds tend to blow.

And note, for the USA:
http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=21574
"""
According to the latest figures released by the Energy Information 
Administration (EIA) in its "Electric Power Monthly" report, net U.S. 
electrical generation from renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, 
solar, water, wind) reached an all-time monthly high in May 2009. Combined, 
those sources accounted for 13 percent of total electrical generation. More 
specifically, renewable sources generated 40,395,000 megawatt-hours (Mwh) of 
electricity in May 2009 (the latest month for which EIA has compiled and 
released data). That level is 7.7 percent higher than that produced in May 
2008 (37,515,000 Mwh) and appears to be the highest monthly figure ever 
reported by EIA for renewably-generated electricity. Total net electrical 
generation from all sources, including renewables, fossil fuels, and 
nuclear, in May 2009 was 311,411,000 Mwh – a drop of 4.1 percent from the 
324,589,000 Mwh generated in May 2008. The 13 percent share of U.S. net 
electrical generation provided by renewable sources in May 2009 consists of 
9.4 percent from conventional hydropower and 3.6 percent from non-hydro 
renewables. The latter figure includes approximately 1.8 percent from wind, 
1.3 percent from biomass, 0.4 percent from geothermal, and 0.3 from solar 
thermal and photovoltaics (totals do not exactly equal due to rounding). 
Comparing the month of May 2009 to the month of May 2008, net electrical 
generation from wind sources increased by 12.5 percent; higher wind 
generation totals in the state of Iowa accounted for 52.2 percent of the 
national increase. This large increase occurred as 11 new Iowa wind farms 
began generating electricity at the end of 2008. Conventional hydropower 
increased by 10.2 percent, reflecting an increase in generation of 2,705,000 
Mwh. Solar thermal and photovoltaics combined increased by 3.5 percent. On 
the other hand, coal dropped by 14.8 percent and petroleum liquids by 8.3 
percent. Nuclear power grew by a paltry 0.6 percent. However, natural gas 
expanded by 10.6 percent. “Month-after-month, the U.S. government’s own 
numbers refute those attempting to dismiss or belittle the rapidly expanding 
role being played by renewable energy sources in the nation’s electricity 
supply,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. 
“Moreover, non-hydro renewables are already well beyond the levels of the 
Renewable Electricity Standard proposed in energy legislation now being 
considered by before the U.S. Senate, which calls for just 3 percent 
renewables by 2013.”
"""

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/